It’s not just that the dialogue now sounds like soap opera psychobabble.
It’s here, in the story of the relationship between Zach (Tony Yazbeck) and Cassie (Robyn Hurder), that “A Chorus Line” most shows its age and its underlying confusions. Now she wants to return to the ensemble, a fate that Zach - her former lover, it turns out - resists on her behalf as if it were death. Having made it off the line into featured roles, Cassie found her further rise blocked by a case of self-diagnosed bad acting. In compensation for the attention splitting that the original concept necessitated, “A Chorus Line” gradually reveals its focus on a central dancer, Cassie. Only the first such number - “I Can Do That,” performed with immense charm here by Tommy Bracco as Mike - seems to hold its own.
#Original soundtrack the chorus line pro#
The underlying commonalities among them (everyone’s sensitivity was mercilessly trampled in youth) are no less repetitive for being believable and touching.Įven when treated more lightly, as in “Sing!” and “Dance: Ten Looks: Three,” the punch lines seem pro forma, as if Bennett and his collaborators were looking to fill out a program with the requisite number of comedy bits. Even when sharply performed - I especially enjoyed Jay Armstrong Johnson’s catty Bobby, Melanie Moore’s oddball Judy and Anthony Wayne’s overenthusiastic Richie - their tales of woe are both long-winded and unsurprising. But these stories are sounding a little trite in 2018.